Jinggoy on stripping office: It’s standard practice

MANILA, Philippines — Detained Sen. Jinggoy Estrada yesterday denied there was anything wrong with stripping bare the office of the Senate president pro tempore, calling it “standard practice.”

Estrada issued a statement yesterday in response to news reports that he ordered the office he would vacate and turn over to his successor Sen. Vicente Sotto III stripped bare of all fixtures, tiles and even the toilet, making it look like a construction site.

Estrada claimed his office had notified Sotto’s office that “the fixtures, furnishings and materials in the office would be brought along to the senator’s new office.”

He said the items removed from the office – like floor tiles, glass panels, lighting fixtures and cabinets – “were acquired using personal funds, as the budget provided by the Senate was insufficient to cover all the expenses incurred.”

Estrada said no public funds were used in removing all the fixtures from the office.

“It bears noting that standard practice in the Senate is for the senator occupying an office to renovate the space based on the budget provided, with any expense beyond that shouldered entirely by the occupant. Let it be stressed, in no uncertain terms, that not a single centavo of public funds was wasted,” Estrada said.

“In fact, the Senate will bear no cost whatsoever for office supplies and materials, as most, if not all, of those used in the previous office will simply be re-used in the new one. If anything, this practice reflects prudence and efficiency, not controversy,” he added.

Estrada asked that the “routine administrative transition… not be unnecessarily politicized, sensationalized or made into a manufactured controversy where none exists.”

Sen. Panfilo Lacson came to the defense of Sotto, as he belied Estrada’s claim it was standard practice to turn over a bare office to the successor.

“Poor Senate President Pro Tempore Tito Sotto. Using a monobloc table and chair and gas lamp,” Lacson said, tweeting an AI-generated photo of Sotto writing on a plastic table beside a lampshade.

“I take exception to the statement pertaining to the state or condition of the same Pro Tempore office that I turned over to Sen. Estrada in 2022. Nothing was removed nor destroyed, precisely because government funds were used when I refurbished it when it was turned over to me,” Lacson said.